


I may run away, but I always come back to where I started

by thisagentreads



Category: Runaways (Comics), Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: AU, Also submitted this for a school assingment, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dear teacher, F/F, Fantasy, Magic, One Shot, Please renew, Runaways season 4, Wolves, deanoru - Freeform, i just changed the names, i miss them, pls dont count me off for plagiarism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23265403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisagentreads/pseuds/thisagentreads
Summary: Nico tells herself she ran away to protect the one she loves, but the night she left still haunts her.
Relationships: Karolina Dean/Nico Minoru
Kudos: 18





	I may run away, but I always come back to where I started

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the title is a quote. Guess who said it in the comments.

Nico sat close to the fire, the clearing in the forest growing colder as the sun disappeared behind the distant mountains. It was nights like this that she regretted leaving her home and the people who loved her. But she’d had to if she wanted to keep them safe. 

A wolf howled, the echo reverberating through the woods. A shiver went up her spine. Her last encounter with wolves hadn’t been pretty. Her previous employer, Morgan le Fay, had sent a pack of wolves to bring Nico back to her weeks ago. It came at a great cost, but once she was finished with the wolves, they were all dead. The blood still hadn’t washed out of her clothes. Morgan hadn’t come for her since then, but Nico knew it would only be a matter of time. She was too much of a threat to Morgan for her to be free. 

The fire flickered as a gust of wind blew through the clearing. Nico laid down on the ground and attempted to find a comfortable position on the rough, unforgiving ground. She hadn’t slept in days. Although her life wasn’t good, not by a long shot, at least Nico could control and anticipate it. There was no such guarantee in her dreams. However, she needed sleep, so she let herself drift off to the land of nightmares. 

She was back in her old apartment, the one she shared with her girlfriend. She saw herself laying on the bed, reading a book. The apartment was exactly as she remembered it, dusty bookshelves, candles, and the slight scent of cinnamon lingering in every room. Nico jumped when she heard the door alarm go off. She remembered this night more clearly than any other in her life. It was the night everything went to hell. The night Karolina saw her for who she really was. It was the night Nico left. She took a deep breath, preparing herself for what was to come. 

Karolina burst into the room right on schedule, slamming the door behind her. “There’s someone here, and they’re definitely not friendly,” she said, breathing heavily.

“I’ll take care of it,” Nico heard herself say. But her voice was distant, and blurry, as if they were separated by a thin wall.

“No, we should run. I have a feeling,” Karolina insisted, leaning back against the door.

“Whoever it is, I can handle them.”

“I know you can, you don’t have to. You’re acting like you have something to prove, but you don’t. Not to me.” 

Nico yelled and begged herself to leave, but her past self and Karolina didn’t acknowledge her. She walked over to herself, trying to push her away, but Nico’s hands went right through her. She was trapped in a memory, and no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t change the past.

“Stay here, I can’t let anything happen to you,” the past Nico snapped, trying to push past Karolina, but she kept blocking her.

“Please, Nico. I won’t let you risk your life for me.”

“No. Get out of my way, or I’ll make you.” Karolina knew she couldn’t stop Nico, not with her power. She stepped out of the way.

“You’d better come back.”

“I will. Lock the door behind me.”

Slow, heavy footsteps sounded just down the hall. Past Nico smiled at Karolina for the last time and went out of the door. Dream Nico felt herself being pulled with her past self, and she followed herself out of the bedroom door. The lock clicked behind her. Past Nico faced the man standing in the hallway. She’d met him while working for Morgan. His name was Quinton if she remembered correctly. He was a magician, but not a particularly powerful one. He was a simple stage performer going by the name Quinton the Great when Morgan brought him into her fold. He learned a lot from Morgan in terms of magic, but he also cultivated a talent with knives. Quinton stopped pacing when he saw Nico.

“Hello, little witch. Been awhile. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, Morgan sent me to collect you. Are you going to come quietly or not?” Past Nico summoned the Staff of One from its spot next to the front door. It was a powerful weapon, one that had been her family’s for generations. The staff lit up when it reached her hand.

“I guess that’s a no then,” Quinton said, opening his coat to reveal a large collection of knives. He selected a pair of long, curved blades. Nico had been so hopeful then, she thought she could win any battle because of the power of her staff. Now she knew better, but there was no way to caution her past self.

The fight went exactly as it had on that day, not that Nico expected anything different. They exchanged blows, but neither of them got anything more than bruises until one of the knives found her leg. She had screamed, loud enough for Karolina to hear. Past Nico fell backward, landing hard on the floor. Karolina found her like that, fallen, bleeding, with Quinton striding toward her, his other knife raised. 

“No, no,” past Nico groaned. She had to save Karolina. She had promised nothing would happen to her. So she used the power she’d kept locked up for so long, the darkness she hid from the world. The darkness sent power flowing through every vein in her body until she couldn’t contain it anymore. It burst out of her chest in a storm of black, attacking Quinton and tearing him apart. By the time Nico summoned the darkness back into herself, Quinton the Great was nothing but a bloody mass on the ground. 

Nico’s breathing grew heavier, she was horrified by what she had done. And so was Karolina. If her girlfriend could look at her that way, then was she really any better than the monster she had just killed. Nico remembered making her decision at that moment. She picked up her staff from the ground and packed it in her backpack. She limped to her bedroom and threw a change of clothes and a little bit of food in the bag as well but no more. 

“What? Where are you going?” Karolina was standing in the doorway, staring openmouthed. 

“I have to go, I’m not safe.” She slung the backpack over her shoulder. “You never should have been around me, no one should.”

“I don’t care about your darkness. You aren’t dangerous, not to me. That was awful, yes, but you did it to protect me. I can’t- I can’t just let you go. I love you, Nico.” 

Nico had tried to push past her, and Karolina blocked her way. “I love you too, and that’s why I’m leaving. To protect you.”

“You can protect me here too. Please.”

“No,” past Nico sighed. She knew what she had to do and that she didn’t want to, but what she couldn’t have realized was how much she would come to regret this moment. She pulled out her staff and cast a spell. Karolina collapsed immediately, and Nico lowered her to the floor. She bent down and pressed a kiss to Karolina’s forehead. She stood up slowly, using a table for balance.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she closed the door to her apartment for the last time. 

The memory faded. Then, Nico was drowning, not in water, but her darkness. She struggled to make her way to the surface, but she couldn’t find it. All she found was more black, and she sank to the bottom, defeated. Her eyes fluttered closed and she let out her breath as her brain went fuzzy. 

When she opened her eyes, she was back in the forest, but light was streaming through the trees. Nico sat up quickly and grabbed her backpack. She had to move. She’d spent far too long in one place and Morgan could find her. She blinked rapidly, trying to wake herself up. Her feet were asleep and she struggled to find the energy to stand up. 

She heard barking, distant at first, but growing steadily louder. Morgan had sent more wolves to hunt her down. Nico was at full strength last time and she barely managed to finish them off. She didn’t have a chance, but she had to try. The pack ran into the clearing, eyes red and teeth bared. Nico lifted her staff and prepared to fight.

The resulting battle went about as well as she had predicted. She’d managed to take down many of the wolves, but there were too many left. She had a nasty gash on her forehead and a claw had reopened the old knife wound on her leg. A wolf prepared to add another cut across her throat. It was poetic, to be in the same state of helplessness with the same wound on the day her life ended and the day she would die. However, fate had other plans.

A truck roared through the clearing, running into the pack. The wolf on top of Nico looked away, long enough for her to take a knife from her bag and stab him through the heart. It was the same knife that had sliced open her leg all that time ago. Poetic.

The pack scattered and the driver climbed out of the truck. Nico’s eyes widened. The driver was tall with blonde wavy hair, although it was shorter than it was the last time Nico saw her. Karolina rushed over to her. “Oh, Nico?”

“I thought I’d never see you again.” Nico’s words began to run together. 

The person she loved more than anyone, the one that she thought she’d lost forever smiled down at her. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

“How- how did you find me?”

“I had a feeling. And I’ve been looking for you since you left.”

“Why?” Nico asked even though she already knew the answer.

“Because I love you. And I could never live without you.” A grin crossed Nico’s face, despite her pain. Karolina ran her fingers through Nico’s hair, wiping away the trickle of blood that was running down her face. “How about we go home?” 

“I’d like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a school assignment in which the characters had no names, but I knew exactly who I was writing about. My teacher will probably never read it, and I really need to share it with someone, so here you go. Also, if you've read my other story, I promise I'm working on the next chapter.


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